Who Are You?
by bionic4ever
Summary: NESSA2: The newest NESSA operative has a secret that could tear the Goldman and Austin marriages apart.
1. Chapter 1

**Who Are You?**

Chapter One

4/20/2016

"I'm expecting Kelly Hansen any minute now," Stephanie told her secretary. "When she gets here, you can send her right in."

"Yes, ma'am...I mean, Stephanie."

Steph smiled warmly at her young subordinate, trying to help her feel less nervous. "Thank you, Annie. That's all." She sat back in her chair and re-opened Kelly's file. She's awfully young for this sort of work, the Director noted to herself - won't even be 26 for two more months. Then again, Stephanie's mother had just barely turned 26 when she'd joined the OSI. (Or, by virtue of her bionics, was drafted to be an operative.)

"Annie said I should come right in."

"Thanks for coming, Kelly." Steph motioned her to a chair. "Can I get you some coffee? A soda?"

"No, thanks. Did I do something wrong?" Kelly asked.

"Not that I'm aware of. You've done an exemplary job for us so far. Three assignments, all successful. Outstanding work."

"Thank you."

"I called you in this morning because James and I have been completing everyone's dossier, and yours has a blank we need to fill in, for security reasons."

"O...k..." Kelly seemed to have suddenly developed a bad case of nerves.

"Under 'Parents', you listed Jack Hansen, but you left your mother's name blank."

Kelly's mind was scrambling, trying to decide what to say, what to do. She knew her new boss could spot a lie at 20 paces, but what if it was a lie for a really good reason? Kelly stared at her feet, at the desk, out the window...scrambling for something to say.

Stephanie could only think of one reason Kelly would be so reticent. "Kelly, even if Jack was with a ...a prostitute," she said gently, "we wouldn't think any less of you."

The operative shook her head. "That's not it. Could...can't we just...leave it blank?"

"Just a formality, but an important one." She studied Kelly's face. "You do know who it is; I can tell. Kelly, there's nothing you can't tell me -"

When she finally uttered a name, she was so quiet and the name so unexpected that Steph was sure she'd heard wrong. "I'm sorry - what did you say?"

"My mother's name...is Jaime Goldman.

------

When she and Kelly had finished talking, Stephanie - mostly on auto-pilot - sprang into immediate action. She pulled a file from the 'Retired' cabinet, checked a detail and swore softly to herself. She told Annie to cancel all of the day's appointments and picked up the phone.

"Hello?" the cheerful voice on the other end said in greeting.

"Mom?"

"Honey, what's wrong? You sound awfully upset."

"I need to talk to you. Can I come over right now? Please?"

"You know you don't need to ask; you come any time you want, 24 hours a day."

"Um...I really need to talk to you alone. Is there an errand you could send Dad on, or something?"

"Steffie, you know I don't keep anything from your father."

"Ever? 'Cause this might be something you should -"

"If you've got a problem, he'll want to help, too. You know that."

"Mom," Steph said carefully, "I think _you_ are about to have a problem. I'll be right over."

------

Jaime and Oscar were waiting for her in the den. Stephanie had no choice but to tell both of them. She shouldn't have been surprised; her parents had always been a united front. They'd recently celebrated their 35th anniversary, and were still just as close and as much in love as the day they were married.

"What's on your mind, Steph, and how can we help?" Oscar asked.

Stephanie looked pleadingly at her mother, who merely raised an eyebrow at her, so Steph sighed and plunged in. "You remember that brand-new operative, the one who's been doing such a great job?"

Jaime nodded. "Kelly, right?" She turned to her husband. "Jack Hansen's daughter," she told him. "Poor thing."

"I had to call her into the office this morning. She'd only listed her father's name in her background material. She left 'Mother's Name' blank." Steph tried to think of a delicate way to say _Mom, did you cheat on Dad with one of your worst enemies?_ Nothing delicate or even tactful sprang to mind.

"Honest mistake, right?" Jaime asked. "She fixed it?"

"Well...sort of."

"Steffie?"

"Kelly said...that _you're her mother_."

"Excuse me?" Jaime was completely floored.

Oscar, on the other hand, chuckled. "Babe, you could do so much better than Jack Hansen."

"That - is very unfunny," she told him. She looked at her daughter, who wasn't laughing either. "You don't believe that nonsense, do you?"

"Well, no...but she has your blood type, Mom, and it's not a common one. She wants a DNA test."

"There's no possible way she could be -" Jaime abruptly switched trains of thought. "Steffie, call Michael Marchetti. He can take the samples and perform the tests a lot more quickly than a lab. I wish it could be Rudy, but..." Her voice trailed off. Rudy'd been gone a little over a year, and Jaime (as well as many others) still mourned the loss.

"I've got the number if you need it, Steph," Oscar told her.

"I have it, but thanks."

------

Michael arrived the following afternoon, took the needed samples from Kelly and Jaime and compared them to each other, as well as to the data on file for Jack Hansen. He uttered a few expletives, shocked by what he saw, then ran the tests again with the same results. How in the world was he going to tell the Goldmans?

-------


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Michael worked well into the night, poring over operative files from the appropriate time period, until he found the answer he needed. First thing in the morning, he called Jaime and asked her to come in to give another sample, hoping she'd come alone. This time, she did.

"I don't need another sample," he told her bluntly, "but we have to talk."

"Results - already?"

"You need to sit down."

"Michael, she's not my daughter, right? It's not physically poss -"

"Sit down, Jaime."

Jaime warily complied. "There is no way -"

"She **_is_** your daughter," he said softly. "There's no doubt at all."

"But -"

"And there's more. Jack Hansen's not her father."

"This gets better and better. Since we're already dealing in physical impossibilities, who is?"

Michael took a deep breath, bracing for the explosion. "It's Steve."

------

Jaime paced back and forth across the floor of the den, waiting for Oscar to return from his walk. She had no idea what to tell him, because she had absolutely no clue how any of it was even possible. The only thing she knew for sure was that she had to tell her husband.

Oscar knew the minute he walked in that something was wrong. He took his wife in his arms and led her to the sofa. "What is it, Jaime? What happened?"

"Kelly's...my daughter."

"You - and Jack Hansen?"

"No! I haven't been with anyone but you since - since before we were even engaged. But apparently, she isn't Jack's. According to the DNA results, she's Steve's daughter."

"**_Steve's_** - and your - daughter. Together." Oscar got up from the sofa. "I need a drink."

"Oscar, I have never cheated on you. Ever!"

"Maybe I could buy that if she was Jack's, but Steve? You two were awfully close once. Sometimes I've wondered if you ever truly got over him."

"Steve was a long time ago, way before 'us'. After 35 years you should know that I'd never do that to you. I couldn't!"

"Then how -?"

"I don't know how," Jaime snapped, "but I'm gonna find out."

------

An hour later, Jaime, having stormed out of the house in a fury, tracked her daughter down in the bowels of NESSA headquarters. "Stephanie, I need your help." Steph was instantly worried 'Stephanie' instead of 'Steffie' meant something awfully serious.

"Let's go up to my office, Mom, and we can talk in private."

Once they were both seated, Steph searched Jaime's face for a clue. "Is it the DNA tests?" she asked. Jaime nodded. "Kelly's my sister?"

"Half-sister. But that's not the problem. Jack isn't her father; Steve Austin is."

Stephanie groaned inwardly. "James' father?"

"That's what Doctor Marchetti said, and he ran all the tests twice."

"Oh. Does Dad know?"

"Yes, I told him. It wasn't pretty."

"I'm sorry, Mom. You said you needed my help?"

"I need you to talk to James, and find out how to reach his father. I need to talk to Steve."

------

Steve and Peggy Austin, as it turned out, was once again living in DC, acting as a sort of support system for their son in his new career. Thankfully, when Jaime called, Steve met her right away, and without his wife. Peggy would be finding out soon enough, but Jaime felt it was better to let Steve absorb it first. She suspected Peggy might not take it as well(?) as Oscar did.

"Thanks for getting here so fast," Jaime told him.

"This holds a lot of memories," Steve mused, looking around what was now Stephanie's office. "Not all of them good ones."

"I know. And you'll probably wanna add this to the list." She told him about Kelly, the DNA tests and Michael's findings.

"That's impossible; we never -"

"I know. But Michael showed me the tests. I didn't even need a microscope to see that everything matched. She's our daughter, Steve. With 99.9 percent certainty."

"_Our daughter..._" When they'd been together, Jaime and Steve had always talked about wanting children together, but this wasn't quite what they'd had in mind. "Wait a minute," Steve said, thinking out loud. "When did you say she was born? June of what year?"

"1990."

"Jaime, that puts me overseas, in Thailand, when she would've been conceived. Were you in Thailand in '89?"

"Not to my knowledge. But the tests..."

They both sat quietly for a good three or four minutes, deep in thought, before an almost visible lightbulb appeared in Steve's head. "I've got it. Jaime, I know what happened."

------

Peggy was even angrier than Oscar had been. "A daughter? You and Jaime have a daughter? But nothing happened between you. Come on, Steve - do you really expect me to believe that?"

"I was in Thailand, Peggy. I swear to you, nothing happened between us!"

"So you flew home for a visit, had her flown over there - who knows what you did, but whatever you did was enough to make _a daughter_! I would hardly call that nothing!"

"I know what happened, but I have to prove it first, then we'll explain -"

"WE? Since when are you and Jaime a 'We'? And you'd better be able to explain pretty damn quick, because I swear to God, Steve Austin, if you did sleep with her, I _will_ leave you!"

"Tomorrow, Peggy; I promise."

"For whatever good your word is! Twenty-four hours or less, Steve, or I am gone!"

------


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The conference room was filled with all the people involved in the debacle of the last few days: Oscar, Jaime, Steve, Peggy, Michael and Stephanie. Jaime and Steve had already explained it all to Kelly in private, and they'd agreed that, while they'd never be a family of three, each of her parents would be spending the time it would take, getting to know her and letting her get to know them. Now, they'd gathered everyone else together so they only had to go through the explanation once.

"When Jaime first became an operative," Steve began, "we were planning to get married, and we knew we definitely wanted kids, but we were worried something might happen to one of us before that could happen. Rudy Wells suggested that we store the necessary...materials, so that if one of us was disabled or killed, there could still be a child. When we split up for good, those materials were destroyed. But, Jack Hansen thought he could get in one more good shot at the OSI and at us by stealing an embryo while Rudy still had them and hiring a surrogate to bear a child - our child - whom he raised as his own daughter until he lost the last of his sanity. Kelly was told at some point that Jaime was her mother, but never knew the rest of the story or how it all truly came about."

"Hansen's last parting shot before he went 'round the bend for good," Jaime continued, "was Kelly. Yes, she is Steve's and my daughter, but nothing happened between us to cause her conception."

"Matter of fact, I was in Thailand for six months, right around when this all took place, so there's the proof, if anyone feels the need for it," Steve added. He looked pointedly at Oscar and Peggy, who'd both been a bit unpleasant since this had begun.

"Steve and I both plan to welcome her into our respective families, and we hope our families will do the same, bearing in mind that this is no more Kelly's fault than it is ours. We're both very proud to call her our daughter, and will tolerate nothing less than respect for the delicate situation she was placed in and the brave way she handled having to be all alone in the world for the majority of her life."

Stephanie grinned. "That explains why she's so good at her job. Her parents were the two best operatives out there."

Jaime smiled back. "Treat her no differently than you always have, that's all we ask."

"As her boss," Stephanie remarked, "I'll be working her that much harder, considering her lineage."

"Are you sure the rest of the...uhh...materials were destroyed?" Oscar queried.

"We were there when Rudy took care of it."

"So this isn't going to happen again in the future?" Peggy asked.

"Not that we're aware of," Steve answered.

"You didn't know about this one 'til three days ago," Oscar pointed out as Jaime sat down next to him. He put an arm around her and made up for the last three days with one very tender kiss.

"Yeah, well, if you know someone with a crystal ball, I'd love to meet them," Steve said with a smile. "Otherwise, the future's the future," he said as he walked over and kissed his wife, "and the present looks pretty damn good to me."

END


End file.
